Electronics manufacturer to slash jobs

Friday

Restructuring announced Thursday by Methode Electronics will mean a loss of 700 jobs, about 550 at the company's Carthage plant. Methode makes electronics parts for major automakers.

About 550 Carthage-based jobs will be lost in the coming months after an electronics manufacturer revealed massive cuts Thursday as part of "restructuring."

Methode Electronics officials announced a total of 700 jobs will be lost between the Carthage plant in Hancock County and the Golden plant in Adams County. The company will also eliminate one product line from its Rolling Meadows facility.

Methode manufactures electronics parts for major automobile manufacturers, such as air bag switches and turn signals.

The Golden plant will be closed in the next six months, and only about 200 jobs will remain at the Carthage plant once the restructuring is complete sometime this year.

Methode’s director of investor relations, Joey Iske, said that over the past five years the orders from the traditional "Big 3" American automakers have continued to decline.

"It was that, coupled with the price reductions that automakers demand," she said.

Some of the jobs will be moved to Methode’s facilities in Mexico and China, Iske said.

Employees in Carthage were notified Thursday if their jobs were being cut. It’s estimated they will work for about 60 more days and then will receive a severance package.

Brenda Pyatt, Carthage’s economic development director, said she made a lot of calls Thursday asking for help from several state agencies.

"Obviously our first responsibility is what we’re doing today. We have to first deal with those told today about the (cuts)," Pyatt said. "We’ve also received a lot of calls from the community offering support — there has been a tremendous outpouring.

The next step is to look at what employees will need over the next three months.

"It will be things such as health, banking and food stamps … every resource we can think of that could be needed," Pyatt said. "The trouble is that these folks buy groceries here, they buy their clothes here. (The whole community) will be impacted down the line."

Carthage Mayor Jim Nightingale said he was notified of the closing Thursday by the manager of the Carthage plant. He said Methode’s research and development, engineering and quality control departments were all in the Carthage plant.

The company once had more than 1,500 employees between its three Illinois facilities, Nightingale said.

The impact of the new job cuts won’t be felt just in Hancock County. Nightingale said some of the employees come from Missouri and Iowa.

The company recently invested about $1 million in Carthage in its molding department, Nightingale said. The hope is to help find some additional business for the company that could benefit from its existing services and equipment.

"We hope to get together with management to find out a little more about how we can help," he said. "I’m still in shock."